Reflection on Teaching

This past Friday, Neil and I taught a lesson on the origins and causes of World War I. The actual lesson planning was difficult, as I had to make a lesson plan fit for one teacher adapt into a two-part job. We also made last-second changes as different thoughts came to mind. My behavior plan was simple: humor. Turn every situation that could be seen as potentially disruptive into a funny little joke. I would rather lose a moment of the class' attention than 5 minutes berating one disruptive student. Also, humor keeps the class in the interested mindset, instead of scaring them into silence. The more kids are comfortable, the more they will respond. I would say the lesson plan kept everyone moving and interested, so the behaviors were small if any. The objective was to have the students realize that the war was not just started by a single assassination. I wanted them to understand how the alliances set before the war started set the tone for tension in Europe, and that the assassination was the first spark that ignited the war. My assessment, the closed-eyed quiz, worked. I could see, and more importantly the students could see, how much they had learned in that day. Also, during the assessment, the students had no fear in getting an answer wrong because no one could see their answers. My lesson plan did not go exactly as I planned, and I don't mind that. The game at the end could have been explained a little more, as sort of a role play. That's what I would've changed: just a brief visual introduction to the game instead of just expecting the kids to pick up on it. I think it went pretty well. The peer evaluations I received were mostly positive, saying that even those who didn't like History were entertained. It was a new spin on dusty information, and was received warmly throughout the class. They were hardly any misbehaviors, and the interest level was kept at a pretty high and constant pace. Like I said, I would have introduced the game a little more if I was to teach this lesson again; but other than that I believe that, in a real classroom, notes would have been taken in addition to the participation, and the kids would have gotten it.